Annoyingly Boring?

Jim aka BusyDad from The Busy Dad Blog tagged me with a meme today (six months ago I didn’t even know what a meme was). I was pleased to see that he wrote some nice things about me and some fellow newbie bloggers. So I guess I will follow through with the meme.

The rules for this one are:

• Link to the person who tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 facts about yourself.
• Tag 7 (4) random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So without further ado….

1. I Was a 16th Birthday Present. I share a birthday with my oldest sibling. I don’t remember much from that day, but I arrived on my brother John’s birthday. With John being 16 years older we didn’t hang out a great deal, but I do recall plenty of quality time spent with him as a little one. He is also my godfather, and was the Best Man at my wedding. He is now 3000+ miles away, and I don’t do a good enough job keeping in touch with him (hmm, do I smell a New Year resolution brewing here?). Oh, and if I had been able to wait another day I could have shared a birthday with my Mom.

2. I Have an Inexplicable Affinity for Things Australian. Years ago I joined a Bruce Springsteen message board. The site had fans from all over the world, and I found this fun. I have always been interested in geography and culture and it was great to have a site where there are folks form all corners of the globe (I know, globe/corners?). Interaction with these far flung fans was made easier as Mr. Springsteen had provided us with something in common (it was a tie that binds). Pretty early on I found myself drawn to a couple of the Australians, they were funny and smart and bounced well off each other. As they posted about Australian Football and Cricket and other topics that were foreign to me I noted that they did so with such passion and fervor. This drew me in. I started paying attention to the Australian Football League’s website and read and watched anything I could get my hands on that related to ‘footy’. End result? I have been, for the last two years a paid member (sort of like a season ticket holder) of the Western Bulldogs. I may never get to a game, but my financial support helps the club. I could go on and on on this topic, but I don’t want to scare you off (we are only on #2) So I will leave it with, Go Dogs!

3. I Don’t Like iPods. Yes, I know that they have a massive share of market, and yes, I know that they make a good product, but I bristle at their popularity. It bugs me that “iPod” is quickly becoming a proprietary eponym (like “Kleenex” and “Xerox”). We have 4+ mp3 players in the house, not a single iPod.
Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone - but the new Nanos (the ones featured in the commercial with Feist’s 1234 video have me somewhat… SOMEWHAT reconsidering my anti-iPod stance. Those are pretty slick. But I will stick with my old klunky Archos AV320 and my Sony Ericsson w580i.

4. I Don’t Watch Much TV Anymore. I used to watch a bunch of network shows, but over the last couple years I just can’t be bothered anymore. We have a TiVo, so it would be easy enough to record them and watch them at my leisure, but I just don’t care to. I am down to about 3 or so shows that I try to make a point to catch. 30 Rock, Amazing Race, and Top Gear (BBC America for reruns, I watch new ones online), and Chuck. I still watch sports on TV, but otherwise, I would rather read the blogs and visit the message boards I frequent.

5. I am Finding This Much Harder Than I Thought I Would. I thought I would just sit down and let it flow. But either, 1) I am trying so hard not to be annoyingly boring, that it is real work or 2) I am indeed just that boring and incapable of generating interesting facts with ease!

6. I Really Miss Competitive Basketball. I played in High School, CYO, and then for years in a pretty tough local rec league. The league even boasted former NBA players. It’s been ages, though, since I took the court in anger. I don’t have the work schedule that works for it, I just generally don’t have time, and I don’t have the knees for it anymore. I played in that rec league for several years and we were able to win a championship only once. It was well over 10 years ago now. I still have, and wear the championship t-shirt that we each received as part of our victory loot. It’s on it’s last legs, but I will wear it until the day it disintegrates. I call it my $600 t-shirt.

7. I Met My Wife on a Blind Date. Believe it! Flash back to January 1989, I needed a date for my Junior Semi-Formal and my fiend John Halpin (where are you now John?) gave me the phone numbers of two girls he knew, told the girls that he did so (sort of), and just by chance I dialed my wife. We talked on the phone a fair amount prior to the dance, but I first met her at her parents’ house when we went to pick her up in the limo. Nearly 20 year ago now! Amazing. We were High School sweethearts, broke up in college for a while, but (obviously) wound up back together. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I called the other girl! I reckon my life would be very different!

Well, there you have it! Man, I am exhausted now.

Now, who to tag?

I am going to follow BusyDad’s lead and do just 4 people. As I turn my attention to my blogroll and who’s in my Google reader (they are not all the same and I should correct that) I want to call out….

Stephen from regeneration

John from Johnny’s World

struglas from hey look what i can do

Jeff from View From the Cloud

Don’t hate me guys! You all have great sites and I smile when your new content turns up in my reader. I look forward to learning more about you guys.

And now I am off to comment on their sites to let them know.

My first meme in the books, I hope you enjoyed it. I did.